As in her speeches in the _Agamemnon_ (vv. 595, 884), Clytæmestra's words here also are full of significant ambiguity. The “things that befit the house,” the proposed conference with Ægisthos, her separation of Orestes from his companions, are all indications of suspicion already half aroused. The last three lines were probably spoken as an “aside.” Footnote 442: Suasion is personified, and invoked to come and win Clytæmnestra to trust herself in the power of the two avengers. Footnote 443: An alternative rendering is, “Nay, say not that to him with show of hate.” Footnote 444: Apollo in the shrine at Delphi. Footnote 445: Hermes invoked once more, as at once the patron of craft and the escort of the dead. Footnote 446: Or “before our eyes.” Footnote 447: The “treasured score” is explained by the words that follow to mean the cry of exultation which the Chorus will raise when the deed of vengeance is accomplished; or, possibly (as Mr. Paley suggests), the funereal wail over the bodies of Ægisthos and Clytæmnestra, which the Chorus would raise to avert the guilt of the murder from Orestes. Footnote 448: As Perseus could only overcome the Gorgon, Medusa, by turning away his eyes, lest looking on her he should turn to stone, so Orestes was to avoid meeting his mother's glance, lest that should unman him and blunt his purpose. Footnote 449: Ægisthos had suffered enough, he says, for his share in Agamemnon's death. He has no wish that fresh odium should fall on him, as being implicated also in the death of Orestes, of which he has just heard. Footnote 450: The word (_ephedros_) was applied technically to one who sat by during a conflict between two athletes, prepared to challenge the victor to a fresh encounter. Orestes is such a combatant, taking the place of Agamemnon. Footnote 451: So, in Homer (_Il._ xxii. 79), Hecuba, when the entreaties of Priam had been in vain, makes this last appeal— “Then to the front his mother rushed, in tears, Her bosom bare, with either hand her breast Sustaining, and with tears addressed him thus, 'Hector, my son, thy mother's breast revere.'” Footnote 452: The reader will note this as the only speech put into the lips of Pylades, though he is present as accompanying Orestes throughout great part of the drama. Footnote 453: The different ethical standard applied to the guilt of the husband and the wife was, we may well believe, that which prevailed among the Athenians generally. It has only too close a parallel in the ballads and romances of our own early literature. Footnote 454: The line is memorable as prophetic of the whole plot of the _Eumenides._ Footnote 455: The phrase “wail as to a tomb” seems to have been a by-word for fruitless entreaty and lamentation. Footnote 456: